The thought of food storage can be very overwhelming, especially if you are new to being self sufficient. You have just realized the need for food-storage and the dangers of what is happening in the world. So now what are you going to do about it? You may find some very good answers in the video below.

The best answer that I have is research and lots of it. You Tuber ObessivePrepperAz shares her thoughts on an easy and affordable way to start off making sure you have two weeks’ worth of food. She walks you through how to calculate food storage for your family and points out some very helpful hints.

However, ObsessivePrepperAZ is just touching on the bare minimum you will need in her video, but by adding things like rice or noodles to some of your storage you can turn one can of soup into a pot of stew. Her tips and secrets are very helpful for a beginner prepper.

She focuses on how many cans of Campbell Chunky Soup you would need for one meal a day. One of her viewers suggested a very effective way to stretch those cans to feed four people 2 or 3 meals per day. That is a LOT more than one can of soup for one person.

“Tip: Double that food storage with one bag of rice, one bag of dried potatoes, and two packs of cubed bullion. Take two cans of that chunky soup, add I cup rice OR potatoes, and a bullion, add at least 3 cups water; make it into a large pot of stew. Feeds four, 2-3 meals per day. Stew is salvation.”

We hope you enjoy her suggestions and please feel free to comment some of your tips and advice to help the newbies!! We all have to help each other become reliant on ourselves.

Survival training is very important for us to learn as adults but also for our children. When we think about natural disasters hitting us, or getting turned around somehow while camping, we naturally think to ourselves, “Well, they have me and i can take care of them”. The question you should ask yourself is, “What if I cant because something happened to me”? Let’s pray it doesn’t but it is always wise to train them to take care of themselves. We teach them this in all aspects of life, so why not wilderness/disaster survival?

After asking people this question I often got the following statement, “Oh my goodness, where do I even start?” That’s a good question and the answer is always going to be; water, shelter, fire, food. In that order. What you teach them about these things will depend on their age of course but water and shelter are a great place to start.

Rob from Sigma 3 Survival school has put out a series of videos titled, “Survival Training for Kids”. In part one he introduces us to his 4 year old daughter Shilo and his dog. (Both are exceptionally adorable by the way.) I was captivated with this video because he demonstrates his love for his daughter through the way he teaches her and sets a wonderful example for people starting with a toddler. He shows us her “mini” survival kit and her back pack and how to treat her clothes to avoid ticks and chiggers.

When it becomes mandatory for us to raise our own food to feed our families, space can become an issue for many reasons. You may have thought that raising and butchering rabbits was out of the question if you live in urban areas, within city limits, or live in a small town but still live in an apartment or perhaps even rent a house.

Well we have good news! It is possible to accomplish feeding your family the old fashioned way verses the supper market way if you live in tight quarters. Raising rabbits might be an option for you. It is very cost effective, delicious and taste better than processed store meat. You avoid paying sales taxes, all the chemicals and antibiotics that are added and is overall healthier for you as well.

The New Survivalist provides us with a series of videos that walk us through how to get started and what you need. In part one, (shown below) he shows wonderful tips and tricks to maximize space and keep the environment clean for the rabbits. He shares everything from what kind of rabbits to choose when starting, the supplies you will need, manure pros, how he sets up a simple watering system, nesting boxes, baby saver wire and many other things you will need to know.

In nearly every movie about an epidemic, from a sci-fi zombie flick to a more true-to-life thriller like “Contagion,” there is a scene where scientists crowd around screens full of data to create detailed maps containing infection zones and spread rates for the public.

While the stirring music, eye-catching maps, and beautiful scientists may be major stretches, these scenes do draw from reality. Millions of scientists and doctors do devote their lives to studying how disease spreads through populations, and understanding their methods might keep you alive longer during a disaster.

Roles of Public Health Specialists

The primary goal of most public health professionals is to prevent health-related disasters completely, but when that is impossible, those skilled in disaster medicine work to mitigate the harm experienced by those living in zones affected by the health threat.

Some focus on the clinical realm, which is largely practiced by physicians eager to be the “first on the scene” to treat and care for sufferers of mass injury or illness. However, more public health specialists work within the operational realm, which requires planners, logisticians, and administrators to stay practical and organized during an emergency.

Usually, public health specialists choose one of five roles within the field of disaster medicine:

Prevention. This requires observing trends and acting to thwart human hazards before they develop into disasters.

Response. This is usually management during disasters, including coordinating personnel, organizing supplies and equipment, and overseeing victim treatment during a disaster.

Recovery. This is the effort to restore typical community functions to stabilize an area after a health disaster.

Mitigation. This is the concentrated effort to reduce losses of life or quality of life during any stage of a disaster.

How Public Health Can Help You

While the world is in desperate need of more dedicated public health specialists, you don’t necessarily have to enter the profession to benefit from knowledge gained in public health programs. In fact, just by learning the strategies used to study public health, including spatial analysis, qualitative data analysis, and more, you will be more likely to survive in a health-related disaster.

The media often misinterprets scientific studies and sensationalizes medical findings, causing widespread panic. However, when you are armed with a background in public health, you can investigate claims of potential disasters yourself.

You can stay abreast of potential threats to your region’s health so you will never be blindsided by a health-related emergency, or you can use applicable data to relocate to regions where medical emergencies are less likely to occur. Because good health is a primary predictor of how you will fare in a true disaster situation, understanding health data is essential to any good prepper’s plan.

Medical Emergency Preparedness Strategies

Regardless of whether you decide to study public health to better understand health patterns and more accurately predict health disasters, you should have a medical plan to keep you and your loved ones healthy and safe during an emergency. Some catastrophes, such as acts of terrorism and natural disasters, are not foreseeable using public health professionals’ techniques, which means having the necessary supplies and equipment on hand will likely save your life when disaster strikes.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offers a prepping strategy that is easy enough for even a novice prepper to follow. It entails three steps: assemble an emergency kit, have an exit plan, and remain informed regarding health situations in your area.

The CDC’s recommended emergency kit is more basic than a prepper’s typical bug out bag, but it might be useful to compare their suggestions with what you already have packed. You might have forgotten something crucial, like prescription medications that will keep your body functioning in a disaster.

If you only have yourself to worry about during a disaster, it is easy to stay organized and in-control, but families definitely need plans to stay together and safe. Strategies to ensure communication, reunion, and escape should be memorized by even the smallest members of your household.

However, a mastery of public health will help you to stay in front of emerging health trends and understand regional threats to your health and safety, so you work to prevent potential disasters before they arise ― saving your life and thousands more lives of your friends and neighbors.